Processed cardboard and wood bedding product and method

ABSTRACT

An animal bedding product is made from waste cardboard and wood pallets by shredding selected amounts of cardboard and wood pallets to provide a blended mixture of wood chips and cardboard pieces ranging from approximately 1/2 inch to 11/2 inches in size.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to an absorbent animal bedding product and aprocess for manufacturing the product from heavy cardboard boxes andwood pallets which are used to ship automotive parts and the like toassembly plants. The invention provides not only a superior beddingproduct but also solves a serious waste disposal problem faced byindustries that generate waste pallets and cardboard.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Automotive assembly plants continuously receive automotive parts inheavy cardboard boxes that are attached to wood pallets. After theautomotive parts are removed, the boxes and pallets must be disposed of.In some cases, the cardboard boxes are attached to the pallets but inother cases they are not. In the past, the cardboard and pallets havebeen manually separated and the cardboard has been baled for disposal.The waste material has in some cases been incinerated and in other casesdisposed of in garbage dumps or the like. The disposal of these wasteproducts has been time consuming and expensive and has createdenvironmental problems.

At the same time, there has been a serious need for absorbent materialsto use as animal bedding products or to absorb chemical spills and thelike. A variety of natural materials have been used such as straw orsawdust. The Morgan et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,324, issued Sep. 3, 1991,identifies the composition and usage of many such materials. It isgenerally desirable that the material be very absorbent, have noingredients which would create health problems for the animals, and bebiodegradable. It is also desirable that the material be readilyavailable on a regular basis in large quantities, at low cost.

Although natural materials such as sawdust, wood chips or wood pelletshave been used in the past, they have not always met the needs of feedlot operators or dairy farmers. Sawdust, for example is quite absorbentbut layers of sawdust will not support the weight of an animal in a feedlot after it has absorbed substantial amounts of animal excretions. Whenused with dairy cattle, it will not hold together and may be slippery.Animal litter made from other natural material have similar problems.Also, if the source material is not initially a waste product or if itis not readily available in large quantities near the area where it isto be used, it may be too expensive to produce or transport, orsufficient quantities may not be available to make the processcommercially feasible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is the result of recognizing that the wastecardboard and pallets could be utilized to produce a useful animalbedding product that out-performs existing bedding products. In additionto providing a superior bedding product, the present invention alsosuccessfully addresses a serious waste disposal problem faced byindustries that generate waste pallets and cardboard. I have discoveredthat by blending the proper percentages of the waste cardboard and woodpallets, and by processing the blended material to the proper size, anexpensive waste disposal problem can be solved and a superior beddingproduct can be obtained that is more valuable than if the cardboard andwood had been separated and sold or disposed of individually. Theprocess is simple and utilizes conventional equipment and the resultingproduct can be easily transported and utilized in a variety ofapplications where a product capable of absorbing and accumulating largeamounts of waste material is needed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of apparatus utilize in my invention whichdepicts cardboard and pallets being first fed through a shredder for aninitial reduction in size and then fed through a hammermill for finalsizing.

FIG. 2 depicts the general appearance of a portion of the final productresulting from the process shown in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIG. 1 there is disclosed a cardboard nailed to threelongitudinally extending, parallel, spaced pieces of wood lumber,usually 2×4's. A typical platform 11 is three feet wide and four feetlong.

Another wood pallet is also shown which comprises three longitudinallyextending, spaced boards 15 in the nature of 2×4's or the like withupper and lower platforms 16 and 17 nailed thereto. Platforms 16 and 17each comprise a series of spaced rough boards nominally 1/2-1 inch inthickness sawn from rough lumber such as poplar or pine.

The boxes and pallets are manually fed, without disassembly, into ashear-shredder or hammermill 20, shown schematically and reduced insize, which is powered by an electric motor 21. It is noted that thecardboard boxes and pallets are not shown to scale but are enlarged forthe purpose of illustration. Shear-shredder 20 is large enough toaccommodate receipt of the boxes, pallets and miscellaneous wood pieceswithout taking them apart or reducing them in size. The material is fedinto shredder 20 for primary reduction to a nominal two foot minus size.The blended pieces of cardboard and wood emanating from shredder 20 aredeposited on a conveyor 22 which carries the material to a hammermill 23for final sizing. Product sizing is regulated by changing screen sizesin the hammermill mill 23 in a manner known to those skilled in the art.The final blended product is carried by another conveyor 24 past anelectromagnet 25 which removes metal nails 26 from the material bymagnetic attraction. The resulting product is accumulated in a pile 27or directly deposited into a transport vehicle if desired. FIG. 2schematically discloses a portion of the material in pile 27 wherein thecardboard pieces 30 are thoroughly mixed with the wood chip 31.

It can be seen that processing is accomplished using readily available,off the shelf equipment. The boxes with pallets attached thereto, theseparate pallets, or random pieces of wood can be fed into theshear-shredder without disassembly and without removing nails. The nailscan be removed magnetically and if excessive dust is produced, it can beremoved with a cyclone precipitator and baghouse. The ratio of cardboardto wood can be regulated by simply adding more or less wood or cardboardto the shredder 20 to achieve the desired percentage.

Tests and experiments have been conducted to determine the optimalcomposition and size of the material. It was determined that fordifferent applications, different material sizes and percentages ofcardboard were desirable. It has been determined that for animal beddingor litter the optimal size of the shredded material ranged from one-half(1/2) inch to one and one-half (11/2) inch in length, where the "size"or "length" is the longest dimension of the piece or chip. The optimalpercentage of cardboard mixed with wood ranged from 40% cardboard to 90%cardboard by volume. The preferred moisture content is 9% to 15% byweight of the blended material.

For the purpose of determining relative volumes of cardboard and wood,the material is not compressed but is simply separated and measured. Itis understood that the uncompressed material will carry a volume of airwhich will be included in the volumetric measurements and will alsoinclude minor amounts of sawdust, dust and the like which will also beincluded in the measurements. However, the dominant material in eachcase is either cardboard pieces or wood chips and a comparison is madewithout compressing the material and without consideration of othermaterials such as air, sawdust, dust, etc. For example, if the mixtureis 50% cardboard pieces and 50% wood chips, and two 50 gallon barrelsare used to measure the volumes, both barrels would be full so that whenmixed the result would be approximately 100 gallons of the absorbentmixture.

A bedding product with a lower cardboard percentage (40%-60%) and alarger product size (3/4 inch to 11/2 inch) performed better and waspreferred for use with beef cattle in feed lots. The bedding ispreferably applied 3 to 6 inches deep and additional bedding is added toexisting bedding to form a pack comprising several layers. The largerchip size and lower percentage of cardboard keeps the cattle fromsinking into the bedding when new layers of the product are added to theold bedding. The resulting pack that is formed will absorb and supportthe weight of the animal, while at the same time absorbing andassimilating waste liquid and solid material

For dairy operations, a different mixture is preferred. The preferredpercentage of cardboard in the blended mixture is approximately 60-90%by volume and the preferred size of the cardboard pieces and wood chipsrange from 1/2 inch to 1 inch. This material can be thinly applied to aconcrete floor or rubber mat of the dairy stall. The smaller particlesize and higher percentage of cardboard is preferred because less woodand smaller particle size minimizes the risk of the animal beingscratched or stabbed by a splinter of wood.

In a broad sense, the waste absorbing mixture which includes pieces ofshredded cardboard and wood chips is combined in relative amountseffective for forming with a known waste product a relatively dryadmixture suitable for absorbing and assimilating the known wasteproduct. If the known waste product is animal excretory materials inboth liquid and solid forms, the relative amount of cardboard piecesshould be adequate to substantially absorb the liquid, with the woodchips being effective to both absorb liquid and provide stability to theresulting admixture. The resulting, relatively dry admixture which hasabsorbed and assimilated the waste excretory material can then be easilyhandled and transported. It can, for example, be spread on fields asfertilizer.

It can be seen that the present invention provides a relativelyinexpensive and environmentally sound method of disposing of wastecardboard boxes and wood pallets to provide a biodegradable blend ofcardboard pieces and wood chips which can be used for animal beddingpurposes or to absorb other waste products.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that a variety ofmodifications may be made to the process and product of the presentinvention without departing from the spirit and scope of the followingappended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of making an animal bedding product fromwaste cardboard and wood pallets comprising selecting predeterminedamounts of cardboard and wood pallets and shredding the material toprovide a blended mixture of wood chips and cardboard pieces rangingfrom approximately one-half inch to one and one-half inches in size. 2.The method of claim 1 wherein the bedding product is used for beefcattle and comprises between approximately 40%-60% cardboard pieces byvolume, and wherein the wood chips and cardboard pieces range fromapproximately three-fourths inch to one and one-half inches in size. 3.The method of claim 1 wherein the bedding product is used for dairycattle and comprises between approximately 60%-90% cardboard pieces byvolume, and wherein the wood chips and cardboard pieces range fromapproximately one-half inch to one inch in size.
 4. A method of makingan animal bedding product from waste cardboard and wood palletscomprising shredding selected amounts of cardboard and wood pallets toprovide a blended mixture of wood chips and cardboard pieces comprisingapproximately 40%-90% cardboard pieces by volume and wherein the woodchips and cardboard pieces range from approximately one-half inch to oneand one-half inches in size.
 5. A method according to claim 4 whereinthe moisture content of the blended mixture is between approximately9%-15% by weight.
 6. The method of claim 4 wherein the bedding productis used for beef cattle and comprises between approximately 40%-60%cardboard pieces by volume, and wherein the wood chips and cardboardpieces range from approximately three-fourths inch to one and one-halfinches in size.
 7. The method of claim 6 wherein the bedding is appliedapproximately three inches to six inches deep and additional bedding isadded to existing bedding to form a pack comprising several layers. 8.The method of claim 4 wherein the bedding product is used for dairycattle and comprises between approximately 60%-90% cardboard pieces byvolume, and wherein the wood chips and cardboard pieces range fromapproximately one-half inch to one inch in size.
 9. The method of claim8 including the step of applying the bedding in thin layers to aconcrete floor or rubber mat of the stall of a dairy animal.
 10. Themethod of claim 4 wherein the wood pallets carry metal nails, andincluding the step of magnetically removing the nails after the materialis shredded.
 11. An animal bedding product made from waste cardboard andwaste wood pallets comprising a blended mixture of shredded cardboardpieces and wood pallet chips ranging in size from approximately one-halfinch to one and one-half inches in length.
 12. The product of claim 11wherein the bedding product is used for beef cattle and comprisesbetween approximately 40%-60% cardboard pieces by volume, and whereinthe wood chips and cardboard pieces range from approximatelythree-fourths inch to one and one-half inches in size.
 13. The productof claim 11 wherein the bedding product is used for dairy cattle andcomprises between approximately 60%-90% cardboard pieces by volume, andwherein the wood chips and cardboard pieces range from approximatelyone-half inch to one inch in size.
 14. An animal bedding product madefrom waste cardboard and waste wood pallets comprising a mixture ofshredded cardboard and wood pallet chips wherein the mixture isapproximately 40%-90% cardboard pieces by volume and wherein the woodchips and cardboard pieces range from approximately one-half inch to oneand one-half inches in size.
 15. A product according to claim 14 whereinthe moisture content of the mixture is between approximately 9%-15% byweight.
 16. The product of claim 14 wherein the bedding product is usedfor beef cattle feed lot applications and comprises betweenapproximately 40%-60% cardboard pieces by volume, and wherein the woodchips and cardboard pieces range from approximately three-fourths inchto one and one-half inches in size.
 17. The product of claim 16 whereinthe mixture is applied approximately three inches to six inches deep andadditional bedding is added to existing bedding to form a packcomprising several layers.
 18. The product of claim 14 wherein thebedding product is used for dairy cattle and comprises betweenapproximately 60%-90% cardboard pieces by volume, and wherein the woodchips and cardboard pieces range from approximately one-half inch to oneinch in size.
 19. A waste absorbing and assimilating mixture comprisingpieces of shredded cardboard and wood chips combined in relative amountseffective for forming a relatively dry admixture with a known wasteproduct.
 20. A waste absorbing mixture according to claim 19 whereinsaid pieces and chips range in size from approximately one-half inch toone and one-half inches in length, and an animal litter wherein themixture is approximately 40%-90% cardboard pieces by volume.
 21. A wasteabsorbing mixture according to claim 19 wherein the known waste productis animal excretory material in both liquid and solid forms, wherein therelative amount of cardboard pieces is adequate to substantially absorbthe liquid, and wherein the wood chips are effective both to absorbliquid and to provide stability to the admixture.
 22. A waste absorbingbedding product for use in beef cattle feed lots or the like made fromwaste cardboard and waste wood comprising a mixture of pieces ofshredded cardboard and wood chips wherein the mixture is approximately40%-90% cardboard pieces by volume and wherein the pieces and chipsrange from approximately one-half inch to one and one-half inches insize.
 23. The product of claim 22 wherein the moisture content isbetween approximately 9%-15% by weight.
 24. A waste absorbing beddingproduct for use in dairy cattle operations or the like made from wastecardboard and waste wood comprising a mixture of pieces of shreddedcardboard and wood chips wherein the mixture is approximately 60%-90%cardboard pieces by volume, and wherein the wood chips and cardboardpieces range from approximately one-half inch to one inch in size. 25.The product of claim 24 wherein the moisture content is betweenapproximately 9%-15% by weight.